Author: Karena Barton
Eco Island Supporters Say “Let’s not Bury Our Heads In The Sand”
Wednesday, 2nd December, 2009 at 8:08 am, Isle of Wight
Green Issues, Island-wide, Opinion Piece, Planning, Press Release
Looks like members of the Eco Island Supporters Group have been having fun on the beach. Ed
While awaiting the outcome of the Planning Departments decision this Thursday evening, the Eco Island Supporters group ponder on a possible future for the Island.
The Eco-Island Supporters Group staged a mock-up of a picnic in a park, which may well disappear under water in a couple of decades due to rising sea levels
The group wanted to highlight how time is running out for the changing climate as well as for the Isle of Wight itself.
The main argument for refusing planning permission is the detrimental impact on the landscape, although the pro-wind supporters group would argue that coastal erosion and flooding as well as changing ecosystems are much more of a permanent threat to the Island’s landscape than temporary renewable energy structures.
Click on the image to see larger version
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Fantastic, love the photos.
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I love the photos too. The point is being missed though. Erecting a few wind turbines will make little or no difference to fossil fuel power production. Experience from Denmark shows that they need about 50% additional fossil fuel capacity to cover the unpredictability of wind power production.
Do we really want this token vision of “greenness” to spoil our landscape?
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Yes, definitely, yes.
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Re: Denmark needing a 50% increase in fossil fuels because of wind power – isn’t that a myth?
Source please.
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it is a myth…Antis constantly roll out unsubstantiated claims about Denmark…truth is they are building more and better turbines, local communities are buying into schemes and getting richer because of it.
Sure some turbines have been removed..the ones at the end of their lives and ones that 10 years ago where plced in less than ideal places when their degree of knowledge was less than it is today.
What we need is a system where communities can buy into turbine schemes so that when we sell back the electricity produced, the communities make money from it. I for one would love to see half a dozen turbines along the top of Shanklin Down, topping up our energy demands and providing income for the town
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wikipedia – wind power in denmark
As you can read the claim that Denmark needs 50% more fossil fuel is an absolute myth in fact:
“it does not need to install additional peak-load plant to balance its wind power. Instead, it purchases additional power from its neighbours when necessary. With some strengthening of the grid, Denmark plans to increase wind’s share even further”
Its neighbours include Norway and Sweden with their huge Hydro capacity.
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Thanks.
As far as I know that 50% fossil fuel myth stems from an article written by a Toronto professor on an anti-type site who cited comments attributed to a Danish energy firm spokesperson (who turned out to be less than credible).
Danish friends have explained how the country buys power from Sweden and Norway during dips then sells it back during peaks – no idea how much of that is produced cleanly though.
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Ah yes, the Danish myth. Now IoW isn’t Spain any more than it’s Denmark, but try this one instead:
11/11/2009
Spanish Wind Power Tops 50% of Electricity Demand
The Spanish wind power industry broke a record on Sunday morning, when turbines nationwide met 53% of the nation’s demand for electricity with production of around 10,170 megawatts (MW), according to La Asociacion Empresarial Eolica (AEE), the Spanish wind industry alliance.
http://www.sustainablebusiness.com/index.cfm/go/news.display/id/19220
Also, this one’s fun:
November 30, 2009
Seven Answers to Climate Contrarian Nonsense
http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=seven-answers-to-climate-contrarian-nonsense
Happy picnicking/nitpicking…
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As I have pointed out before, ALL energy supplies have back up redundancy in order to ensure the supply. This is not something special for wind turbines.
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Yes I agree we do, we need to, otherwise like Rowan said we won’t have a landscape to enjoy. Unless of course you like looking at barren landscapes and water. And getting wet!! More rain!!
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Its a sad old shame but the Isle of Wight will never be an Eco-Island. I was sent a document titled “Impact of Intermittency”, A confidential report on UK and Irish wind energy vs. nuclear power published May 2009.
It was funded by several companies in the UK energy industry and has been used to justify favouring nuclear over wind in choosing low-carbon ways to generate electricity. A censored version is in the public domain to make us think we need nuke power.
The debate over low-carbon energy is being dominated and distorted by large corporations and their special interests, and that this report in particular was used to do so.
So if we do have nuke power plants in the UK, what will happen with the waste? We have no landfill sites for domestic waste as it is. I can see these big compaines following the ways of Trafigura, a London-based company which classes itself as one of the world’s largest oil traders who was in talks to reach a “global settlement” to the claim by 30,000 people from Ivory Coast, who brought Britain’s largest-ever lawsuit after contaminated sludge from a tanker ship was fly-tipped under cover of darkness in August 2006.”
See the Telegrapgh article that they had to remove from the site. The guardian and others are also still wrapped up in a secret gagging order….. What we don’t know wont hurt a?
http://88.80.16.63/leak/trafigura-toxic-waste-independent.pdf
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I hopb Shobba isn’t going to come on this thread and start talking about me again.
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ventnor twinned with maldives?
the stunt meeting should’ve been on boniface down where the last remaining ventnor inhabitants will live when water covers the rest of the town!!
http://www.allgov.com/ViewNews/Nepal_Cabinet_to_Meet_on_Mount_Everest_91201
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wikipedia – turbine cooperative
This Island could so easily become involved in Turbine co-opertives and become as showcase for Britain the way that Samso has for Denmark
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Unfortunately NO.5, it seems us Islanders are not as forward thinking as the Samsingers.
Here’s an article on Samso.
http://www.spiegel.de/international/europe/0,1518,656325,00.html
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Samsø is everything the IOW could and should be. Selling energy for profit… a new energy academy/visitor education centre… it’s local produce enjoying huge popularity (and selling for incredible prices) due to it being eco-farmed.
Have to say, I think the wind turbines look rather beautiful too.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/gallery/2008/sep/21/samso.windfarms?picture=337762443
One thing that gets overlooked is how the Island’s economy could benefit from embracing a green ethos properly.
Doesn’t matter whether you believe wind energy is the answer or not – I think it’d encourage companies looking to promote themselves as ‘green’ to relocate here and it’d also provide a welcome boast to tourism (and more than likely house prices). Or is the Council’s plan simply to let the economy fester and die slowly?
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We need some real jobs on the IoW.
Tourism makes a few people rich, but many working in the industry are paid Mickey Mouse wages.
More Eastern Europeans can be seen working in all of our service industries. We need jobs that pay more than the average wage – 80% of island jobs (lower paid) are subsidised by social and council handouts.
Far too many light industries have been allowed to fall by the wayside. One of the main reasons we can not attract new businesses is the high cost of the ferries – They love tourism and festivals, after all, they are their bread butter.
Dare I mention the word LINK?
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the sun visited samso yesterday :
http://www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage/news/Green/2755984/Sun-man-visits-worlds-first-eco-island.html
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i’m on my way to greenland to conduct an investigation in person – doesn’t father christmas reside in that part of the world? – hope this climate change won’t affect his present distribution!
http://www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage/news/Green/2754269/Greenland-in-meltdown-Sun-man-visits-vanishing-ice-sheet.html
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Wouldn’t that be nice if it read’ Sun Man visits Britains own Eco Island’
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Last night (at the planning meeeting) the applicants admitted ‘there would be no benefit to the island’ if the dreaded steel monstrosities were built.
Facts. You lot just don’t accept them eh?
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THats because we see beyond our deminishing coast line to see the bigger picture, something you, with your head in that hole have missed
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It is you ecomentalist zealots who refuse to see. Simple question for you. Is the world warming or cooling?
Like everyone else I speak to, I am happy that my council are trying to protect our AONB’s against industrial developments. It makes me very glad that I voted conservative last time.
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and blue is pink and black is white….is your nickname Pelucid
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